[mzajc]

There's more! On my machine it creates an empty ~/.mozilla/extensions directory every time it starts, and I have no idea why it does that or how to make it stop.

[create_accounts]

there's a stupid solution that I put in practice out of helplessness. I remove the writing permission on ~ to my user, only sudo can write on ~, so some apps simply fail to launch

[PenguinCoder]

So then you have to run those apps as root user, or does sudo to your own user work? I wouldn't expect it to with those perms set.

Seems more dangerous than just dealing with the cruft.

[create_accounts]

I don't launch them as root. That defeats the purpose because they would write on the ~ folder. ZSH Terminal grumbles when launching but why the hell does it want to log my every command?

only 1 app has failed to launch and I barely need it anymore.

if it is crucial, I give myself permission to edit the folder so the application can create its folder for dumping rubbish

[brontitall]

zsh wants to write a history file so you can recall previous commands. You can disable it or set to to write somewhere else

[TRiG_Ireland]

On mine, it also creates ~/Downloads/thunderbird.tmp directory.